Drastic Plastic

I've just reached a decision that I'm going to retrieve my LP player from my mother's house, along with a big stack of vinyl. I can't even find half of the stuff that I like on CD (Kansas' "Masque" was the tipping point, plus I don't see much point in paying twice for music I've already bought.

In related news, Mario Lanza, who seemed such a godlike and blastingly powerful tenor to me when I was a teenager, now seems maybe a tad overdramatic in his phrasing and delivery. I'm much older. It's possible to appreciate something more, while enjoying it less.

*****

Addendum: And, holy shit! One of the isocynate units in Institute apparently just blew up. A friend reports her family fled in advance of the cloud, and relatives felt the ground shake 25 miles away.

Palin?

Well, I never saw that coming.

O.o

Experimental evidence that radioactive decay rates vary with distance from the sun. The authors discuss theories including the idea that fundamental constants change in the vicinity of the sun (!), and the idea that neutrinos are somehow responsible.